There was a stiff  Southwest wind blowing at daylight this morning when I hit the lake. The stripes were at the Bunge grain elevator as was this 5 1/2 pound hybrid striper.

It was caught on a DT-10 along with the stripes and a couple of small largemouths. From there I went to the sandbars where I caught a couple more bass @ 3 pounds each.  I was feeling kind of smug because hanging in the bushes like Christmas tree ornaments were a DT-6 and a DD-22. The 22 will need new hooks but the 6 is good to go. Here they are before I cleaned them up.

The plastic box that I keep my “found baits”  in has filled up.  It’s quite a colorful collection. When the gars get bad about snipping off your crankbaits, I pull out the “found baits” box.  When you lose one of those it’s not quite as painful as losing one of your good baits. Speaking of pain , my smugness was short lived. I use an old 5500c to pull crankbaits. Its drag is not as smooth as the new reels and sometimes almost locks up.  It did that today and the line snapped on the hookset on about a 2 1/2 pound bass. A good DT-10 went with the bass. I saw the fish when he jumped to throw the hook.  For once I was pulling for the fish to throw the hook.  I hung around but the bait never came floating up.

I had a report from today’s trip to Wolf from Taff and Will.  They caught 41 bass with a FOD over 4 and a few between 3 and 4. He said they only caught a few in the same place. Most fish were scattered here and there. The fish were bunched up there last year due to the high water going down and creating a current in the lake. The fish were schooled  on the underwater points feeding on the bait fish coming by. This year that is not the case, as the water is lower and has been for some time. The fish are not as concentrated. Concentrated or not Taff and Will had a great day.

The Garhole is slowly falling which , I think, will be good as long at it does not go down too far.  I had company there too, but they left before the fish really turned on.  They were fishing with a worm around the bank and caught some too. I was fishing with a Ribbit out in the middle and caught a few right off the bat but my company had been there last week catching some out in the middle also.  Whether they kept any or not, I don’t know.   I hope not. In one side hole, look what came to check out the Ribbit.

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and there he was about 50 feet away. He was small, about 5 feet long. Young and too stupid to be afraid.  The Ribbit interested him a lot, especially when I pulled it fast and made it really sputter and throw a lot of water.  I threw it in his direction and started to pull it fast and the gator came after it on a plane, so fast I had to reel as fast as I could to make sure it didn’t catch the Ribbit. It came right up to the boat . I took this photo just as it was leaving.

I have been using a new scent on my baits. The more I use it, the more I think it is working. It comes in a tube like a big chapstick, with about the same consistency. Your bait still has a greasy feel after many casts.  What happened today to make me believe it works is a goggle eye got in behind my Ribbit and was following  trying to eat it.  I thought the goggle eye  was a small bass and I was trying to pull the bait out of its reach. The goggle eye latched onto one of the Ribbit’s feet  and I raised it into the boat before it let go.

The second photo is of the scent stick. Just remove the top and wipe it on.  The fish started to bite well about 9 and continued until about 11:30.  Here is one of the FODs @ 3 3/4.

This one got tangled in the depthfinder transducer  and I thought had escaped but  came free and was caught instead. It was one of the 4 over 3.  Toward noon, I started to fish with a worm and caught this 5 1/2 pound grinner.

The only reason it’s laying there so still is  I gave it a sedative, that is, a tap on the head with a cut off hoe handle. Eighteen bass today in an interesting day at the Garhole.

Visited Wolf again Friday and had a so so day. Some of the places where I caught 15 in a sitting were barren, not even a bite. Others had fish but not enough to catch a lot at one sitting. I discovered there is a guy down there that fishes the same spots that I do but he goes almost every day. I ended up with 20 , not too good for Wolf Lake. None were biggies. Most were caught on a DT-6 or 10 but some came on a Carolina rig. I was just trying to learn how to use one. I saw another large dead alligator. I think they are getting lead poison, via a 30-06. I also saw a flock of 6 black bellied whistling ducks. Here’s a photo of the gator. Could not get close because of the stench.

Rufus and I went to Wolf Lake this afternoon to fish in the rain.

We caught 26 mostly in places  where they were not the other day.  Some bit a DT-10 when we first arrived but after a short while it took a worm to get a bite. We caught all sizes as you can see.

The FOD was 3 3/4.  A lot of laughs today!

Today at Wolf Lake I had the first hook ever stuck in me past the barb.  I was holding a small bass up by the line preparing to get a grip on it so I could take the hook out. It made one of those frenzied shakes and when it was over I was holding the fish up with a DT-10  hook in the back of my right ring finger. The hook was in past the barb and the point was trying to come back out through the skin.  First with my left hand I put a white knuckle grip on the fish to keep it from shaking again.  The hooks in the fish were not too complicated but without a hand they were difficult to unhook but I finally succeeded.  I thought about pushing the hook through and flattening the barb but that would cause more pain so out came the needle nose pliers. I got the pliers pointed in the right direction so the hook would come out. At this point my fear was the hook would not come out the first time I snatched.  I snatched just like I had been doing on the fish all afternoon and out it came on the first try. It bled like a stuck hog.  Out came the a paper towel and the first aid kit with a band aid and I was back fishing in short order.

The major feeding period was in the afternoon so I didn’t go to the lake until late and started fishing around 10:30. Things started off slowly but around 12 noon the bite started. An old 5500c was called into action to pull the DT-10 so I would not wear out one of my new reels. Here it is with one of the fish.

The fish were bunched up in the usual places. Caught 20 in one spot. The FOD was 3 – 11.  68 bass was the final tally, most on a DT-10, some on a DT-6, plus 3 catfish and a goo. One of the catfish was 16 1/2 pounds and was caught on a worm on 8 pound test Gamma copolymer.  After a long one sided fight it got into an old sunken treetop. I had given up and actually tried to break the line but the fish made another surge and cleared the tree top and finally  came into the boat.

I believe the catfish bit the worm because I had just applied some new scent to it. The scent comes in a tube much like a large chapstick and has about the same consistency.  I noticed that when the fish would start just bumping the DT-10 an application of the scent seemed to get back biting it enough to get caught. The scent does not wash right off. It will stay on a DT-10 for 20+ casts.

This morning I had originally planned to go to Wolf Lake but the weather was looking like it might rain, so against my better judgment I went to Ferguson.  Since the rise some of the spots I wanted to fish were a little too deep but I figured the fish would be there anyway. At the first place a 3 1/2 ate my swimbait so I figured all was going to be fine. Another quickly bit but after that things slowed markedly.  By 10:30 I had only 4, things were looking bleak, and the clouds were getting heavier so it was time to go home. No pictures because I couldn’t catch anything worth taking a photo of.

Clarence, our dog, usually gets out of our bed, and shakes twice when he’s ready to go outside to “do his business”. This morning at 10 until 4 was no exception. I usually “do my business” before I escort Clarence to the back yard.  This morning, I discovered when I came out of the bathroom, that I had been tricked because Clarence was back in the bed and IN MY SPOT and sandbagging, not wanting to move.

Since I was awake, I decided to make the best of the situation and go fishing.  By the time I arrived at the Garhole and launched it was 6 straight up. The bass have been in a different location each day in the Garhole. Today they were not out in the middle as they have been. They were still liking the Ribbit frog. This one was the last of the 8 caught in the first hour and the FOD of 3 – 9.

As the morning went on, the bite slowed and forced me to try other baits, one being a fluke. I used the fluke after getting a good fluke demonstration the other day from Hal.  Also the DT-6 came out and demonstrated its versatility, catching a 9 pound catfish on the first cast and then two bass and a crappie in quick succession. Eventually the DT-6’s mojo gave out and things were getting slow. I was hung up with a Ribbit  on a vine next to the bank and holding the line tight as I went to retrieve my bait as a Prothonotary Warbler came and lit on the end of my rod. It was a first ever for me. It stayed for a few seconds and left only as I stealthily, I thought, reached for the camera in my shirt pocket.

I ended the day with 17 fish which makes a total of 104 bass from the Garhole for the  3 trips in the last week. That is excellent but it’s time for the Garhole to rest for a while.

Since Saturday was such a success, I wanted to share the wealth. That seems to be the politically correct thing to do these days. Hal could come, spend the night and fish on Monday, so he got the job. We put in earlier than before, and just like before, the fish were out in the middle  to start. We caught the better fish there but the bite was not as intense as Saturday.  The fish size was nowhere close.  We caught 56  with the FOD of 3 – 12. There were three others over three and a few just under. Many were this size although maybe not as fat.

Hal caught some on a Ribbit but most on a sluggo or fluke type bait. He would skip the bait under the bushes to the bank where the fish were waiting in the shade.  Here he is with a fish vying for the smallest of the day.

I think I caught the fish with the sunken belly again that was pictured in Saturday’s post. It looked the same and had a wound in its mouth from Saturday’s hook.  We had a great time in the Garhole that was known as the Third Dike Bluehole when we fished it while in high school.

Put in at the Garhole this morning at 5:45 which was about 30 minutes late. Since there is a good bit of moss around the bank with coontail underneath, the plan was to concentrate on the moss with a Ribbit.  I weeded out the pocket of my tackle bag that holds my plastics the other day and I remembered  that I had a bag of 10 Ribbits in there somewhere.  The usual Ribbit rod for me is a 7 foot medium action with a Shimano spinning reel and 20 pound braid, but this morning since that rod had been relegated to be used as a worm rod,  I used a 7 foot medium with a Citica and 14 pound flurocarbon.  Casting without backlashing was the only issue that worried me. On the first cast out into the middle to make sure the settings were right, I had a bite and was so surprised I didn’t even set the hook.  With that start, I started casting out to the middle where there was scattered floating moss. This one with a sunken stomach was the first one I caught.

They were out prowling in the open and I caught a good many there. All were in the two to three pound range. It seemed strange to be throwing a topwater Ribbit frog in 37 feet of water and catching fish to boot. I went to a part of the hole that is shallower, 5 to 8 feet. There the duckweed was being blown around and the fish were following it  so they could stay in the shade. Under the water coming to within a couple of feet of the top were coontail castles of moss.  The fish today weren’t messing around. There was no airballing, no hitting and missing, or no following up. When the bass hit today they had one thing on their mind — FROGLEGS ! They were blasting it.  I caught 20 on the 10 Ribbits, and after the last one had been ruined, I thought about how stupid it was to have 300 at home and no more than 10 in the boat. On one more check of the tacklebag I found a bag and 1/2. Game back on. I think the FOD, 4 – 5, got the last of the first bag. You can see the moss in the background.

I went on to catch 31 by 12:30, each one an a Ribbit.